Friday, August 21, 2009

Floatin' Powa News Service: Straight Outta Hell's Kitchen

While Israeli leaders proclaim Jerusalem to be the unified capital of Israel, Israeli Muslim leaders teach their children that Jerusalem is rightfully Arab and Muslim. On Saturday, the Islamic Movement bussed thousands of Israeli Arab Muslim children to the Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, where they heard speeches referring to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem as areas “occupied” by Israel.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi have decided to ease a series of restrictions on the Palestinian population during the month of Muslim month Ramadan, which begins Saturday. The soldiers were instructed to act respectfully towards the residents and refrain as much as possible from eating, drinking and smoking in public in front of the Palestinian population, particularly at crossings, during the fasting hours.

"Israel needs to act with responsibility on the issue of settlers and especially developments in east Jerusalem," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference with his visiting Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh."If there is genuine will for peace, it is time to openly display it," he added.Judeh, for his part, said: "We agreed that unilateral moves in east Jerusalem will harm the peace process because such moves are not only confidence-shattering but also illegal."

Saudi Arabia stated on Wednesday it has been maintaining "unblemished" relations with Egypt and Syria, an official source said, refuting press reports that it had received advice from certain countries that it should not hurry in going to Damascus and that there is a difference of opinion between the Kingdom and Egypt on the formation of the Lebanese government.

U.S. President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of Pakistan's most fervent Islamist and anti-American parties, including one that helped give rise to the Taliban, trying to improve Washington's image in the nuclear-armed state. Obama's special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, is initiating dialogue between the United States and religious parties previous administrations had largely shunned, both sides said.

"The purpose is to broaden the base of American relations in Pakistan beyond the relatively narrow circle of leaders Washington has previously dealt with," explained Vali Nasr, senior adviser to Holbrooke. John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush presidency, questioned Holbrooke's timing for trying to engage Taliban sympathizers on the eve of elections in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are battling the hard-line Islamic group. "As a general proposition, democracy in Pakistan is fragile enough now that negotiating with people that some on the democratic side of the Pakistani spectrum would think themselves are terrorists strikes me as fairly risky," Bolton said.

Mr. Ramadan, who has managed to impress a predominantly leftist audience with his eloquent talk of a "European Islam," likes to talk about democracy and following the rule of law—but only as long as the law doesn't contradict an Islamic principle. He rejects terrorism and violence but thinks that blowing up eight-year-old Israeli children is "contextually explicable." He supposedly stands for a modern Islam, but he refused to reject the stoning of adulterers when then-interior minister and future French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged him on the subject in a 2003 TV debate. All Mr. Ramadan could bring himself to say was to call for a "moratorium" on the practice.

Mr Ramadan, already persona non grata in the United States, has dismissed the decisions as "simplistic" and driven by the "Islamophobia" generated in Dutch politics by the populist campaigner Geert Wilders.

Tariq Ramadan, the Islamic scholar sacked by Rotterdam city council and Erasmus University, will take up the job of professor of contemporary Islam studies at Oxford University in Britain from September 1, the Telegraaf reports

On the eve of Afghanistan's presidential and regional elections, one of the country's most notorious militia commanders has emerged from exile. General Abdul Rashid Dostum's return to Afghanistan, where the ethnic Uzbek boasts a significant following, is seen as a boost to incumbent President Hamid Karzai's reelection chances. But the accusations of widespread human rights abuses that led to Dostum's exile in Turkey remain.

The BBC – whose BBC Persian TV service broadcasts by satellite to Afghanistan – said it would proceed with its plans for covering the presidential election, which takes place today."We have a duty to our audiences to report on the situation in Afghanistan fairly and accurately, and we will continue to do so," a BBC spokesman said.

It should be recalled that in 1978 the Soviet-Afghan expedition under the leadership of Victor Sarianidi found in northern Afghanistan the so-called "gold of Bactria" - about twenty thousand pieces of gold jewelry dated back to 1000 A.C. It is for this discovery that Sarianidi was once named "Shliman of the East". Gold of Afghanistan was exhibited in major museums around the world, and in 2011 the exhibition will come to Russia.

Professor, Doctor of History Victor Sarianidi is heading for over half a century the Turkmen-Russian archeological expedition in Mary province of Turkmenistan where it unearthed a large settlement of Gonur-Depe from the Bronze Age (III-II centuries B.C.), which is presumably an ancient capital of Margush country that scientists believe to be the birthplace of Zoroastrianism and the fifth center of world civilization, along with civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China.

Victor Sarianidi is an honorary citizen of Turkmenistan, Honorary Ambassador of Hellenism, winner of the International Prize of Turkmenistan named after Makhtumkuli and the medal of "Civilian Valor" of Greece, as well as numerous awards and commemorative medals of various universities of the world.

If one is looking for a sign of the changing world order, the size and scope of recent Chinese moves in the energy field should serve the purpose.It was only a few years ago that the US and its oil companies, in their quest to secure vital oil and gas, were accused of all sorts of transgressions from imperialistic exploitation to coddling corrupt regimes to finding pretexts to invade Iraq, twice.

In retrospect it is not quite clear how much of “always blame the Americans even if you are wrong you are right” was justified, but one thing is certain. The insinuations implied that the US government and its foreign policy understood the importance of energy supply to its economy. This is no longer the case, with the American national debate (and that of several other developed countries) consumed by climate change, carbon emissions, and the preposterousness of solar and wind energies as substitutes for real energy sources.

While any realistic and even charitable estimate puts solar and wind as contributing less than 1 percent of world energy demand for the next 20 years, more than 85 percent will still derive from oil, gas and coal; this while world energy demand will increase by more than 40 percent. The lion’s share of the latter will go to China.The concern for the 1 percent solution, while ignoring the 85 percent question, is tantamount to economic hari-kiri for the US and presents a huge opportunity for China to expand its energy interests worldwide and diversify its supply sources.

Venezuela has asked for an $8 billion upfront payment from China in return for almost all of its fuel oil output for three years until 2012, reports said.Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has welcomed China's effort to secure future supplies of key natural resources, as it reduces Venezuela's dependence on oil sales to the United States.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to award Mufti Ravil Gainutdin with the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, has caused something of a dilemma in Russia's Muslim community. The honor of receiving the order is not the problem. It is the shape of the award, which is a large Christian cross that would be out of place and likely even be offensive to many Muslims if Medvedev were to pin it on Gainutdin's chest -- as is the custom -- when he presents it to him at a Kremlin ceremony whose date has not been announced.

Gazprom approached Congo-Kinshasa earlier this year to study and extract hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Lake Kivu area, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. The Kivu region of Eastern Congo has seen some of the worst violence in the region as armed factions jockey for its mineral riches, though the conflict has lost its intensity since a war in 1998 to 2004. But the African country now wants to turn the methane gas found at the bottom of the Lake Kivu into electric power as it tries to rebuild its economy. The region's Lake Kivu contains 65 billion cubic meters of methane gas, enough to power the U.S. for a month, the U.N. Environment Program said in a 2006 report. The person said Gazprom proposed to exploit the whole Lake Kivu area - an offer that was declined.

On August 17, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service issued a statement saying it had declassified documents showing that the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the Soviet Union's "only available means of self-defense."

A journalist in the Russian republic of Khakassia is being charged with libel after his reports on the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station were deemed "inaccurate" by local officials, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports

The state support, which will include more state purchases of gems, is likely to help state-controlled diamond miner Alrosa service about $3.6 billion in outstanding debt. Alrosa, a major rival to De Beers, produces about one quarter of the world's rough diamonds.

Serhiy Ratushnyak was told by prosecutors in Zakarpattia Oblast, of which Uzhhorod is the capital, to inform them of any possible trips outside the city while an investigation is conducted into charges of abuse of power, hooliganism, and violating ethnic and racial equality laws. Ratushnyak is accused of using anti-Semitic language against parliament deputy Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his Front For Change movement.

Ratushnyak reportedly repeatedly called Yatsenyuk, who is running for president, "Jew Yatsenyuk," and described him as an "impudent Jew." He is also alleged to have attacked a young woman working for the Front For Change and destroying a tent belonging to the movement. Ratushnyak says the woman attacked him.

"Uzbekistan is, of course, interested in supporting relationship with the United States as a key player in the process of resolving the situation in Afghanistan, or maintaining it in a stable state," Uzbek Expert Sergey Yezhkov believes. The Commander of the U.S Central Command, David Petraeus has visited Uzbekistan this week. The meeting between the general and President Islam Karimov discussed the strengthening of cooperation and interest in the two countries.

A well-known Azerbaijani writer and journalist, Novruzali Mammadov, has died in a prison hospital, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. Mammadov, 68, was a leading activist of the Persian-speaking Talysh minority of Azerbaijan

The recent shooting death of Kazakh boxer Yermek Serikov is the latest in an ugly series of sports-related crimes. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 20 prominent sportsmen in former Soviet republics have died under suspicious circumstances

Among the estimated 3,500 "energy citizens" at a Houston rally on Tuesday were Chevron employees and retirees "invited ... to participate" by the company, which also provided buses for the estimated 250 to 350 of their number to get there. Chevron had "sent a memo to its downtown Houston employees encouraging them to attend (the) event, so they can be a part of the energy policy discussion," said company spokesman Morgan Crinklaw.

There’s another sense, too, that’s an even more direct form of capture than appropriation – where businesses try to win government contracts or other favors for themselves (as opposed to trying to get new regulations to hurt their competitors). The defense industry is infamous for this, but it’s of course all over the place. Call this the “bribery” definition, since it basically describes bribery, broadly defined.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and fellow central bankers gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, are showing scant signs of reprising the coordinated stance they took fighting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as they deal with its aftermath.

The danger is that such a disjointed approach will lead to volatile financial markets, a damaging drop of the dollar and slower global growth, Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview.

“The question is not whether the dollar will weaken over time, but how it will weaken,” said El-Erian, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund whose firm runs the world’s largest bond fund. “The real risk is that you will get a disorderly decline.”

President Barack Obama's push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers.

Coalitions of interest groups running at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads hired GMMB, which worked for Obama's 2008 campaign and whose partners include a top Obama campaign strategist. They also hired AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama's campaign and now to the White House. AKPD did work for Obama's campaign, and Axelrod's son Michael and Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe work there.

The firms were hired by Americans for Stable Quality Care and its predecessor, Healthy Economy Now. Each was formed by a coalition of interests with big stakes in health care policy, including the drug maker lobby PhRMA, the American Medical Association, the Service Employees International Union and Families USA, which calls itself "The Voice for Health Care Consumers."

Their ads press for changes in health care policy. Healthy Economy Now made one of the same arguments that Obama does: that health care costs are delaying the country's economic recovery and that changes are needed if the economy is to rebound.

There is no evidence that Axelrod directly profited from the group's ads. Axelrod took steps to separate himself from AKPD when he joined Obama's White House. AKPD owes him $2 million from his stock sale and will make preset payments over four years, starting with $350,000 on Dec. 31, according to Axelrod's personal financial disclosure report.

The three Republican members of the Gang of Six — the half-dozen senators engaged in bipartisan health care talks — are getting some special attention from the conservative Club for Growth. The organization, known for supporting primary election challengers to Republicans it deems lacking in conservative cred, says it will begin running home-state television ads on Thursday urging Senators Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Olympia Snowe of Maine to resist expansive Democratic proposals.

“We believe it is vital that these three Republican senators do not cave in to the far left, as three Republican senators did to provide the winning margin for President Obama’s failed ’stimulus’ spending bill,” said Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman who heads the group.

The ads come as leading Democrats are growing more pessimistic that Mr. Grassley, a linchpin in the talks, will be able to come to terms with Democrats. Some Republicans say he could face a primary challenge or be denied a top committee position if he cooperates with the opposition. Mr. Grassley has said political threats will not influence his position.

This may come as a surprise in view of the president's push for a trillion-dollar health insurance program on the domestic front. But the Obama administration is on track to spend more on defense - in real terms - in any four-year period in US history since the end of World War II.

Global trends in political economy suggest that “democracy” as we know it, is a fading concept, where even Western industrialized nations are retreating from the system. Arguably, through party politics and financial-corporate interests, democracy is something of a façade as it is. However, we are entering into an era in which even the institutions and image of democracy are in retreat, and the slide into totalitarianism seems inevitable.

The National Intelligence Council report, Global Trends 2025, stated that many governments will be “expanding domestic security forces, surveillance capabilities, and the employment of special operations-type forces.” Counterterrorism measures will increasingly “involve urban operations as a result of greater urbanization,” and governments “may increasingly erect barricades and fences around their territories to inhibit access. Gated communities will continue to spring up within many societies as elites seek to insulate themselves from domestic threats.”Essentially, expect a continued move towards and internationalization of domestic police state measures to control populations.

Concerns surrounding the City of Austin's proposed Fusion Center were the focus of a meeting on Tuesday. The American Civil Liberties Union met with city staff members to talk about the proposed Austin Regional Intelligence Center, better known as the Fusion Center. The city already leased building space for the center from the Department of Public Safety. The center will allow for the sharing of information between local, state and federal law enforcement. According to the ACLU, they will meet directly with city council members to make sure the guidelines for the center include privacy protections. Fusion Centers have popped up across the country for years, as a way to combine efforts to combat organized crime. ACLU said the centers have also been known to target law abiding citizens with illegal surveillance.

Promise: “I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign.” (Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007)

Track Record: The independent watchdog group SourceWatch.org found that lobbyists had funded Obama’s Senate campaign, as well as his presidential campaign from the beginning. By the time Obama had made the statement above, it was already false. Public Citizen had already listed nine different lobbyists who had contributed to the Obama campaign, in addition to “bundling” individual contributions averaging more than $100,000 each to Obama’s presidential campaign during 2007. During the 2008 campaign, Obama accepted bundled contributions of nearly one million dollars ($997,095) from Goldman Sachs executives, the same firm that received tens of billions in bailout funds through the TARP legislation Obama backed in September 2008. Obama later backtracked, claiming that lobbyists who funded him didn’t impact his decisions. Of course, this is the same claim all politicians who take money from lobbyists make.

Much like it produced the cosmic microwave background, the Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space and time—that still fill the universe and carry information about the universe as it was immediately after the Big Bang. These waves would be observed as the "stochastic background," analogous to a superposition of many waves of different sizes and directions on the surface of a pond. The amplitude of this background is directly related to the parameters that govern the behavior of the universe during the first minute after the Big Bang.

A new species of giant carnivorous plant has been discovered in the highlands of the central Philippines.The pitcher plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap. During the same expedition, botanists also came across strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms they could not identify.

A huge Neolithic cathedral, unlike anything else which can be seen in Britain, has been found in Orkney. Archaeologists said that the building would have dwarfed the island’s landmarks from the Stone Age — the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness. Nick Card, who is leading the dig at the Ness of Brodgar, said that the cathedral, which would have served the whole of the north of Scotland, would have been constructed to “amaze” and “create a sense of awe” among those who saw it. It is about 65ft in length and width and would have dominated the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness which stand on either side. These important sites, dating back about 5,000 years, might have actually been peripheral features of Orkney’s Stone Age landscape. Mr Card said: “In effect it is a Neolithic cathedral for the whole of the north of Scotland.”

Two days ago we had the story of the unearthing of a mother goddess figurine in Direkli Cave in the southern Anatolian city of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, see here. Well Haaretz.comis reporting on the uncovering of three figurines belonging to the ancient cult of Aphrodite (the goddess of love) in Hippos-Susita, the site of a Greco-Roman city, which is in the southern Golan Heights.

The Flying Camel

Arebel's Diary

BabbaZed Vinyl Cultessa 2012

BabbaZee Repenthouse Pet 1982

Should GOD reward you on your terms then, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I... So, tell me what you know... ~ Job 34:33

"You surrender in your own name. Leave me out of it. "

Obey & Endure

No matter how many times I explain to people that I understand that they feel lost and helpless and betrayed by their leaders in the face of the Jihad, that I understand deeply that these are the only people that you perceive to be "standing up to jihad" - no matter how much irrefutable information I give you that many of these so called anti jihadists are just as bad as the jihad itself - You will turn the blind eye out of expedience, out of fear, out of laziness, out of shallowness of moral character, out of stupidity, out of tribal affiliation, out of complacency, out of ignorance, out of vanity, out of hatred.... take your pick. In any event you will chose to stay blind. Let those who have eyes, see:

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If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

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Next time someone tries to shove some Homo Stultus dogma down your throat it would please me very much if you would use the following links to express your disinterest in their Darwingelical Dawkins Da'Wa....